A little of everything WDW YES MNSSHP US/IOA Seaworld Legoland and more FINISHED

[khertz]

Sounds like a fun breakfast! It has been on my maybe list for awhile. I love when characters are SO in character, like asking if she hurt herself falling down the rabbit hole. Alice seems to be really good about that kind of stuff. She was great with DS when we met her! Bummer she hurt herself, but it's always fun to have something for the characters to have fun with on a trip.

Ooh, I hope you were okay without your meds! I always worry about leaving important things behind when moving from place to place.

 

[kdka421]

Joining in your trip report!

I know completely what you mean about planning...we did a lot less planning for this trip, and much of what we did plan got thrown out the window, and then at the end we had to figure out a lot of things on the spot. It was not my typical style! But it really worked well for this trip.

Looking forward to reading more

 

[Chelley00]

The mad hatter was our absolute favorite character interaction on our last trip! He was a hoot!

We loved him. He was so random and went from one topic to another. He told DD had she not been late for a very important date, she may not have broken her arm

Sounds like a fun breakfast! It has been on my maybe list for awhile.

You must go next trip. I think it's our favorite character breakfast now.

I know completely what you mean about planning...we did a lot less planning for this trip, and much of what we did plan got thrown out the window, and then at the end we had to figure out a lot of things on the spot. )

I think you guys ended up having to be way more flexible than we did. Ours were just minor changes here and there, not hurricane delays, but I don't like change so what seems big to me is really pretty minor to everyone else. I'm such a baby!



October 14th
Let Mommy mark off her "To Do List" then we can play!

After breakfast we headed toward DTD for some housekeeping items:

1. Pick up YES tickets from Guest Services. Handed them the voucher, got the 8 day WDW tickets. Took all of 5 minutes. Our class wasn't until the 17th, but I wasn't sure if we would have another time to get the tickets.

2. Exchange photopass plus certificate for the card. They had done that at 1900 for us, so this was already marked off my list.

3. Babycakes. With my food allergies, I wanted donuts. That's not something allergy people can readily get, and I was drooling for baked goods. I stocked up on a dozen donuts/cupcakes to put in the freezer.

To do list completed (with much whining from the kids that they wanted to shop, but I promised we had more DTD time) The only thing that drug them away from DTD was the promise of swimming! My kids are on swim team and swim 3-5 days a week, yet all they wanted to do was SWIM? Only once we got to the pool, they decided no pool, but lazy river!

We were able to drag them out of the pool and herded everyone upstairs to nap (ha ha) change and then get ready for

 

[Joyciemc]

Loving your TR so far! I'm jealous that you had 2 weeks!

 

[STAYC18]

love it so far..can't wait for more...

 

[khertz]

We wandered into Babycakes one night just because we hear about it all the time on the WDW Today podcast when they have Emily on, but we didn't get anything even though it all looked really good. I hope everything tasked as delicious as it looked in the cases!

I bet they were excited for MNSSHP!!

 

[Chelley00]

Loving your TR so far! I'm jealous that you had 2 weeks!

We know we are lucky to have been able to take 2 weeks. My job is very flexible. My mom's company was bought out and they are restricting the time they can take off so next trip may not work out so well.

love it so far..can't wait for more...

Thank you!

We wandered into Babycakes one night just because we hear about it all the time on the WDW Today podcast when they have Emily on, but we didn't get anything even though it all looked really good. I hope everything tasked as delicious as it looked in the cases!

Some people really complain about Babycakes because they go in thinking it's just a regular bakery, and are upset with what they get. Gluten free baking is totally different from normal stuff and people aren't prepared for that. I have a review of the stuff I got from Babycakes in my dining report linked below if you are interested.




October 14th
MNSSHP
But I wanted to be a dummy

MNSSHP is my most favorite thing about Disney. We go twice every trip because you really can't get it all done in just one. I love the atmosphere, the costumes, the attitude of people. I'm not a total Halloween fanatic either, so it's surprising I love MNSSHP so much.

When talking about costumes I had different ideas. I wanted to be creative and stand out. 2 years ago we were the 7 dwarfs with my brother's family and we got so much attention. The kids loved it. I kept throwing out ideas for just the 4 of us (a ride from each park, an icon from each park) and got nixed each time. My favorite idea was crash test dummies, since Test Track was closed, but they all said no. Great idea, right?

My mom decided she wanted to be pirates (like the rest of the world - boring) and the kids were all for it. Pirates it was.

After a short nap, we got up and got dressed. As we were walking to the car, some guy passed us smiling and I quipped "We dress like this every day" and he laughed. Embarrassed DD to death. My calling for this day is complete.

Going through the MK gate, the lady gave us 2 huge handfuls of candy for "trick or treating". The last couple of trips we've been onsite and monorailed or bussed over, so I forgot this little touch

We parked and then took the ferry to MK

Yes, this is how baby pirates treat their Granny

After grabbing our wristbands and treat bags, we made it into MK right around 5:15. I reviewed our to do list on the ferry and knew what our first stop had to be:


Flying Carpets

This was the last day it was open before a refurb, so I wanted to make sure the kids got to ride it first thing.

Next ride had to be Jungle Cruise since it isn't open during the party. We had to sit in the very back because we were pirates and they didn't want us taking over the boat. Funny, but we couldn't hear anything over the motor noise. I mean I have no idea what the guy said. And it smelled like exhaust. Badly. DD came off the ride with a headache. Pretty disappointing.

At least I've ridden it enough to know the inside jokes to caption my pictures:

The backside of water. Ohhhhh. Ahhhhhh

I can't see them. Can you (canoe)?

And just enough time left to catch a ride on POTC

At this point it was getting close to 6:30, and I knew where we needed to be no later than that time, so we asked a CM for the line up point and were 3rd in line for Captain Jack Sparrow.

Hey, if you have to dress like a pirate, having to hang out with Jack makes it better, right?

 

[Chelley00]

Oct 14
MNSSHP
Where the heck is our captain??


Granny and the kids waiting for Jack

We watched as the line got longer and longer, congratulating myself for knowing this would happen. 2 years ago I got into line at 6 for the dwarfs (we were dressed like dwarfs.....we HAD to) There was a CM blowing bubbles for the kids and DS was popping them with his sword

At 7pm the chimes sounded and the voice came over to announce it was party time. I love that. It changes the whole tone of the park.

We waited for Jack, and waited for Jack and waited for Jack. Apparently it's fashionable for pirates to be late. Finally, close to 15 after 7, Jack finally made his appearance.

He was great with mannerisms, but he spoke so softly, none of us had any idea what he said.

That done, we made our way around, stopping at a wrist bad check point to get out of Adventureland and then another line of CMS blocking the bridge to Splash and BTMR checking wristbands. A CM at the line told DS and DD a bunch of lame pirate jokes as we walked by.

We took a quick spin on BTMR, skipping Splash for a warmer day and then headed to the dance party for a couple of quick songs, and then to the Haunted Mansion. Don't you almost have to ride it at MNNSHP?

We stopped for the only magic shot we had on our must do list for this trip, the hitchhiking ghosts. Last trip we tried but the camera wasn't working. Their was no line, but the lady rushed into position, told DS he needed to squish in or he would be cut out, then snapped a picture before telling us anything. I'm pretty unhappy with the final product, but what can you do?

I told the kids we would keep riding things until time for the fireworks, so off we went. We got a lot of attention at Peter Pan. One CM told us we couldn't ride because they didn't like pirates, another CM told us to say hi to Hook.


A quick trick or treat spot at Pinnochios to fortify the troops with candy

and that's when we realized the new Fantasyland was open!

We took a fast ride on the Little Mermaid

and then nixed anything else in favor of coming back when it was light outside and we could actually see.

[/IMG]

My mom's first ride ever. Last trip it was closed for refurb

and then on to DS's favorite. How I love photopass plus. It's so nice to get every ride photo

At this point it was time to grab a snack and a seat for the fireworks

 

[khertz]

How fun that they kick off the party at the parking lot by giving you candy. One of the little reasons I just love Disney!

Great call getting in line early for Captain Jack! I can imagine his line gets HUGE throughout the night!!

 

[ash-n-brensmom]

WOW!! You have been updating so much, I don't know where to begin! I want to try out 1900 for breakfast...looks great with the Mad Hatter...too bad about Mary Poppins, though.

You guys had great costumes for the party! They turned out really well....even if they aren't as unique as you wanted...they are perfect! Our Jack Sparrow was late as well...we were second in line, and I kept thinking about all the time we were wasting waiting for him!

 

[Madzac]

Love the costumes!! You all looked so cute! We were at MNSSHP the same night and it was the highlight of our trip.

 

[Chelley00]

Great call getting in line early for Captain Jack! I can imagine his line gets HUGE throughout the night!!

It was very long by the time he came out. I can't imagine what it looked like after we left.

Our Jack Sparrow was late as well...we were second in line, and I kept thinking about all the time we were wasting waiting for him!

I was chanting "we have other things to do, we have other things to do" until he finally weaved his way out.

We were at MNSSHP the same night and it was the highlight of our trip.

I would go to MNSSHP every night of our trip I think. I love it!





October 14
MNNSHP
A little more to the left


We made our way to the castle front to watch the fireworks. It was only about 15 minutes before start, so I knew we wouldn't get good "seats". DD noticed a whole section in front of the castle to the left that was completely empty. Not going to the be the best view, too far to the left and too close but if we kept going to the left, there is a fence railing and curb to sit on. Bonus score. We can sit. I'm all for that.

DD had one thing on her to-do list for tonight. She wanted to see if Lotso smelled like strawberries

Well, he didn't, but she got to squeak his tail (or, play with Lotso's butt as we teased her all week......)

We decided to watch Boo to You from Frontierland, so we made our way over there and got a seat right near the country bears right in front. DD and I went to get popcorn and bottled water and we sat and snacked and chatted with a lovely family all the way from, well, Florida, who sat next to us. They had a DD our DS's age and they hit it off. Very well.

And a little side note, is there anything better than Disney popcorn?

While DD and I were on our popcorn search, DS was hula hooping with a CM who caught me after the parade to let me know he was one of the most polite boys she has ever seen.

Yeah, hula hoop with the neck. And notice the pirate boot covers are long gone, as is the bandana, eye patch and earring. He was pretty much naked by the end of the night

Finally, it was time for the parade. I'm a terrible photographer. My headless horseman pictures are ALWAYS either too far away or I miss him. This year, too soon.

But I managed to get a couple of decent pictures of some other people

Dang the stupid rope, but this pirate was yelling "arrggghhh, fellow pirates" at us and when I went to take his picture, he screamed "CHEESE"

Now, a little rant. There was a family behind us, and their precious little mermaid kept smacking DD and I in the head with her very full candy bag when Goofy's workers came by with the candy. First of all, this girl's bag was so full there wasn't any room left for more. Second, it's free freaking candy. To beat someone to death screaming "CANDY" to get another piece of essentially free candy is ridiculous. I tried to move, and the girl just kept inching her way forward, stepping on my hand, our costumes and she knocked our leftover popcorn over. Poor DD was so upset because she just doesn't deal with confrontation well. She kept ranting about it asking me to do something after the parade. We kept joking that it was funny she wanted me to track this girl down and the beat down a 9 year old, and that became the running joke of the week. "What do you want me to do? Open a can of whoop butt on a little kid?"


Next up:
What can we do in an hour?

 

[xkaittloveex]

Love the costumes! Too adorable!

How was The Little Mermaid?!

 

[Chelley00]

LHow was The Little Mermaid?!

It's not a popular opinion, but I wasn't impressed. It was fun to be able to say we got to ride it before it officially opened though.




Oct 14
MNSSHP
What can you do in an hour?



So parade over, this leaves just about an hour to finish up before the party ends. I had 2 things I wanted to do: ride Dumbo at night and see Rapunzel and Flynn. I'm a youth small group leader and one of my girls is IN LOVE with Flynn. Crazily She was actually on her way to Disney for the first time this very minute (at age almost 18), but they didn't have plans to go to MNSSHP and was heartbroken when I had to tell her Flynn was only around for the party. My mission was to meet Flynn and text her the picture, maybe even call her so he could say a brief "Hi" if they'd let me.

Everyone was excited about Dumbo (except my mom - fear of heights) but I encountered resistance from the troupes regarding Flynn. Now, we can meet Rapunzel anytime, but not with Flynn. We didn't have plans for a second MNSSHP this trip, so this was it.

We left Frontierland heading to Fantasyland, and of course, we had to do the trick or treat trail near the riverboat on the way

Finally, the new Dumbo. We skipped the circus tent for another day and walked directly on the ride

The kids got a glimpse of the new improved "Barnstormer" and insisted.

We walked the trick or treat trail from Fantasyland to Tomorrowland to finish filling up those bags (my dentist will love me)

And this is where it starts....... the meltdown

"But we don't care about Flynn. We want to ride Buzz"




We can ride Buzz anyday. We had 2 full MK days left. Flynn is only here for the party. We only have 15 minutes left. And this is when someone walks by, hears the tirade and says "We just left the line for Flynn. It's REALLY long. Everyone leaving is stopping there on their way out."

So nice for someone to intervene and save us the trouble of waiting in a really long line. I was bummed for my youth girl. Instead, I herded the kids to a brief stop at the dance party with Goofy for a song, then over to Buzz.

This is typical tired kiddos: Wild DS and Grumpy DD

As we walked out of Buzz, the castle chimed midnight. I wish we would have been able to talk the kids into more characters, but the lines were pretty long and they know from experience that even though the character lines are long, the ride lines are non-existent and they are all about the rides.

When we got home, the kids were hungry, so we all sat down at 1am in pajamas to eat a sandwich on the balcony and plan the next day.

Next up:

We're headed to the darkside.

 

[Joyciemc]

Sounds like you guys killed MNSSHP! Way to go!!

And guess what? I agree with you about Little Mermaid. Yup. For sure.

 

[Chelley00]

And guess what? I agree with you about Little Mermaid. Yup. For sure.

Oh good. I know some people thought it was great, but we got off and went "that's it?"

October 15
Universal
Home away from home away from home


Having not gone to bed until 1:30 I was pretty sure everyone would sleep in, but we were up and moving by 8:30. DS decided to do some chores first (seriously, he was addicted to the Bissell and used it every day)

DD is not a morning person. At all. Ever

I went back and forth on my next decision, but knowing we had only 1 1//2 days for Universal and IOA, I wanted to maximize our time. I looked into buying Express Pass and realized with our AAA discount, it would be cheaper to get an onsite room. This also would give us early entry into WWOHP. I booked the cheapest room at Royal Pacific Hotel and decided it would be a little "mini-vacation" and we could spend one night there, swim in a different pool etc.

Only no one wanted to pack an overnight bag to share beds and one bathroom. I felt a little guilty spending money on the room until I reminded myself it was still cheaper than buying Express Pass (that's not unlimited), the hour early entry and paying for parking at the parks 2 days. We got to RPH around 10am. The resort is very pretty.

We checked in, got our express pass and decided we should at least check out the room that was going to sit empty all night. When we got off the elevator we headed down the hallway and realized there was a urine smell all the way down the hall. It was pretty strong and I was beginning to congratulate myself on not packing bags to stay there. Until, we saw the view

and to the right

The second the kids saw the pool, they were upset with "me" that we weren't staying there. I **briefly** flirted with going back to the condo to pack overnight bags after we left Universal for the day, but the decision had been made and I wasn't budging. Besides, having my own bed vs sharing with DD was much more enticing.

I finally managed to convince everyone there was more to see than the RPH pool, and we headed out to find the water taxi to Universal.

 

[Chelley00]

Hey everyone. I will be back to finish my trip report but for right now we are internetless at home. Our current carrier couldn't fix it so we are switching to cable Internet and have to wait for the install.

 

[Chelley00]

Finally! Internet! We were internetless at home for 10 days, and actually lost our internet at work for 2 of those 10 days. Thank goodness for an Iphone so I could check email at least!


October 15
Universal Studios
Granny - the MIB Junkie



We headed out of RPH, past the pool and followed the sign for the water taxi.....only we never found the water taxi. It's pretty easy to miss the actual taxi stop......especially if your kids are fighting and you're threatening your DS7 that you will leave right that very second and drive him to the airport and put him on a plane back home to daddy........


So, we ended up walking to Universal.

It's not a bad walk, really, but it was getting warm and muggy and the kids were not being nice.

And neither was the lady at the bag check kiosk thingie. Now, I know it's hot, and she probably didn't see too many people that day walking past her, but she was just plain snotty. I stuck my tongue out at her when we went past her later, just for giggles.

The first thing on our list was Despicable Me. Thank goodness for express pass. The wait was 50 minutes, but we breezed right in. However, the pre-show stuff is SO long, so it still seemed like a 50 minute wait. The que is so cute and set up just like Gru's house.

We loved the ride. My mom was a little overwhelmed. It made her a tad motion sick being her first ever "really good" simulator ride. I love Disney, but Universal BLOWS them away on simulator rides. She was fine, but it's probably a good thing it wasn't any longer than it was.

I let the kids pick right or left, and they decided on right, probably so DD could avoid me making her ride The Mummy. We decided to hoof it back to let my mom get on Men In Black and then we'll backtrack. This proves to be the biggest mistake of my life.

My mom because a MIB addict. We have to ride it 3 times in a row before we can drag her away.

"well, we have 30 minutes before we have to get our stuff out of the locker, so we might as well keep riding until the time expires".

The funny part of this is that SHE'S TERRIBLE at it. I mean, awful. As in, the kids and I are breaking 200,000 points and she's getting 40,000.

Now, to skip ahead a little, wait until tomorrow. She makes us ride it 3 more times..........

 

[Chelley00]

October 15
Universal Studios
Opening a can of Whoop A*S in the ET line.



We decide to backtrack back to find some lunch, and ride whatever is in our way. The first thing we get to is Simpsons. I wasn't sure I should take mom on it after her experience on Despicable Me, but she says she's good and she'll just take her glasses off if she needs.

Wait time was 50 minutes (God bless Express Pass - never again to Universal without it) but we zipped right ahead to the holding area. Yet another long preshow, but at least it give the kids something to watch while waiting.

How's this for timing?

After The Simpsons it was time for a quick stop at International Food and Film. Pretty blech, but it was food.


Next stop was ET. This was the most unorganized ride we found all day. The wait time said 70 minutes (about noon)

We went in the express pass line, but they had it all combined until REALLY far inside so the line was really backed up. People kept trying to cut in front of us to find the express pass line, including one very obnoxious buxom lady, who was telling everyone they had to let her through because she was an onsite guest, but when she got to us and I said "Everyone standing here has express pass too", she conveniently decided she didn't speak English anymore and tried to shove her bozongas past me. Now, my mom is 6 foot tall. My mom is a nurse who works in geriatric care and lifts people all day long. She's tough and I'm scared of her, and she was getting angry.

Thankfully there was a really big guy in front of us, and he helped us make a wall to block her. Thank you to whoever you were, because I really didn't want to watch my mother get into a fight in the ET line Once we got to the express pass part, the line disappeared and we walked right on. The people in front of us were talking, so the kids didn't hear their name at the end. I like it, the kids were bored, but we were all grateful for the dark air conditioned line.

 

[Chelley00]

October 15th
Universal Studios
Wait, was that really the parade?




After exiting ET, we made our way to Woody's Coaster and took a quick spin on it. I swear, it takes longer to put your bag in the bins, get in and sit down than the whole ride does

We got off in time to do a quick explore of the Kids Zone and then ran and snagged a quick seat before the Animal Actor show started. The kids LOVED it. They are both huge animal freaks so it made their day to watch the different animals do all their tricks

Definitely a must do again for the kids.

We made our way back towards the entrance to continue our circle back, and missed the Horror Make Up Show. Terminator was down, so scratch that too, and instead we headed back to Shrek 4D. Along the way we ran into Marilyn Monroe, who was very busy with a group of balding, overweight, middle aged men and Lucy

DS was playing with the camera in line. It's an actual picture of me (and the kid behind my mom makes me laugh)

I don't get the preshow of this one. It talks about how we're going to be tortured in the dungeon, but then the actual show has NOTHING to do about torture chambers or dungeons or anything. All their other pre-shows set up the actual ride, but this one doesn't.

My mom was not feeling another simulator, so we sat up front so she could have a stationary seat, which was really nice for her.


After Shrek it was time for the parade. The parades at Universal are, well, lame. It was very very short, (seriously, maybe 5 minutes?) but the kids liked seeing all these different characters out.